Letter to the Girl Holding the Pen from Ekari Mbvundula
Ekari Mbvundula is a seasoned writer of over 15 short stories, which have been published both online and in print. This episode features Ekari’s letter to the girl holding the pen and a commentary from Alinafe Malonje.
August 2020
To The Girl Holding the Pen,
When you first fall in love with words, it will be much easier to write them than speak them. There is safety in written words, you can erase and rewrite them to perfection, make them flawless. You whisper your deepest thoughts to your pen, and from them, the most vivid characters are born.
You will always start off writing for yourself, where you write to smile, to cry, to cheer yourself up, to express your anger and sorrow. Your favourite writers have inspired you to walk in their footsteps and you try creating your own versions of their captivating stories.
But eventually your gaze shifts and you begin to examine your words with a critical outsider’s eye. There is no way these words are good enough for anyone to read! Suddenly it seems ridiculous that you even picked up the pen in the first place. This is your most crucial time as a writer. You come to a crossroads where you must decide if you will be brave and foolish enough to send your stories out… or if you will put down the pen forever.
If you choose the harder path, prepare not for a sprint, but a marathon. Not everyone will love your stories. Some may even hate them. Most publishers will not publish your work, it will not be to their taste, they may insult it, or more likely ignore it completely.
After knowing all of this the question remains; why bother at all?
Because your stories will speak to someone. The way you handled depression in your first story will be the spark that inspires a reader to seek help. The way you perfectly express the joy of playing phada will start a movement of fans who use the slang you invented on their social media. The fact that you finished and published a story at all will inspire another girl to pick up her own pen.
The formula is simple. The more you read and write the better you will become. Your 1st story will pale in comparison to your 10th, and your 5th book will seem amateur compared to your 15th. But every book can touch a life if you put everything you have in each one.
So, to the Girl Holding the Pen. You hold your pen for yourself first… but you keep going because your words have the power to change your world.
Don’t put that pen down.
